You need to have 15 months accesable at all times. In
my facility, our medical records department thins our charts every 3
months. At each nurses station there are file boxes with each residents
name. In them we put the over flow of mds for the 15 months. We
keep one annual/significant change assessment with raps and 3 quarterly
mds's. Then when they are thining the charts, the remove out of the file
boxes the mds's that need to go to the overflow charts in the office. We
have had no problems from state. Accutally on our last survey we got a
lot of thank you's from state for having charts neat, and easy to find
everything in, even the over flow for the mds's.
State surveyor just left today and we got
cited for keeping residents MDS in my office versus putting them in the
charts. We send the MDS to medical records for filing in the
charts after pt. is discharged. What are your thoughts on this
issue?
